By Jason Campbell
Caution: the following article suggests theories which are almost certain to be untrue so proceed with caution. But it involves the TTRPG Dungeons & Dragons’ lore intruding on the real world, so what the heck, let’s check it out!
IRL Monoliths!
In late 2020 in the deserts of Utah people found a mysterious metal object – usually described as a monolith – which disappeared in a few days. They look like dark large metal objects. It was never conclusively determined who put the object there or who removed it. The object was reportedly between 10 and 12 feet tall. Shortly after in the Romanian city of Piatra Neamt a similar object was found, and again no one knew who put it there, or more importantly for our purposes, why did they do so?
In June 2024 another similar monolith was found without explanation outside of Las Vegas. According to the site https://monolithtracker.com/, 245 similar objects have been reported world-wide since 2020. Wow. That’s a lot of metal things. NPR published an article about the latest monolith discoveries here. But again, why these metal objects?
D&D Obelisks!
Many of the adventures published by Wizard of the Coast for Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition have mysterious obelisks. They look like – well, dark large metal objects. The obelisks usually don’t have a direct connection to the plot of the adventure. The first time I heard anyone looking at these objects in a comprehensive way was in TTRPG YouTuber Jorphdan’s video, Secret Obelisks throughout D&D Adventures. He published this video on November 30, 2020 and it’s received nearly 80,000 views. Wait – that’s late 2020? Hmm…
In later videos from Wizards of the Coast Chris Perkins mentions that the D&D 5e adventure Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk will deal with these mysterious obelisks. That adventure did delve into the lore, but still left some questions.
Coincidence?
Sure, probably. But the timelines lining up makes me wonder. But there’s a few things to consider.
Obelisks Are Not Monoliths
Ok, but any of these objects could have been described as “large metal objects” and that would have been just as accurate. What terms got applied to each doesn’t necessarily highlight a difference.
Monoliths Are Found World-wide, But D&D is Largely an English Language Game
Well you’ve got me there, D&D hasn’t been translated into many other languages (I’m looking at you, Wizards of the Coast). But citizens of many other countries do speak English as a 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th) language. More importantly it’s likely that whatever the motivations of the first few monolith makers, others are copycats who have done it because it seems like a cool idea. Maybe the first monoliths were installed by D&D fans and as reports of it went out, even people who knew nothing about the game copied the monolith just because it sounded weird and fun.
But Didn’t Aliens Place the Monoliths?
Well… you know what? Next question.
But Vecna Was Behind The Monoliths In Some Of The Modules And We All Know Vecna Is Real. Didn’t You See Stranger Things?
Yeah, but… you know what? Next question.
Conclusion
The whole thing is weird. And so is this article’s premise. But we don’t know why these objects were put there, so who’s to say it’s not related to Dungeons & Dragons? It seems as likely an explanation as any. Might be just me.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
